The greener way to go (Scotland)
Former EastEnders star Wendy Richard, who was buried in a wicker coffin, has brought greener funerals into the spotlight. Kate Hodal looks at green funerals, from being laid to rest in bamboo to having your body “promessed”
By, The Press and Journal
THE recent funeral of former EastEnders star Wendy Richard was always going to attract attention, but it was her choice of a woven bamboo coffin that really got people talking.
Richard’s family said she wanted to be buried in an eco-friendly casket “rather than cut down another tree” – but conventional coffins do more harm to the Earth than just deplete forests.
Whether they are made from mahogany or MDF, coffins tend to be loaded with toxins, resins and glues that seep into the earth (and water table) long after the body has decomposed. Cremation is not much of an eco alternative, either – it’s energy-intensive and highly air polluting.
The green funeral sector is reflecting a trend towards taking a more environmentally friendly way out, having expanded nearly 30% year on year in the past decade, according to the Natural Death Centre (www.natural death.org.uk).
Specialising in all things green, the NDC has seen the eco funeral sector bloom from nearly nothing to a £1billion industry that encompasses everything from biodegradable urns to woodland burial grounds.
Whether it’s a pod, a shroud, some ashes or a promession, the greener way to the grave argues that it’s never too late to start thinking eco.
COFFINS
Conventional coffins pose substantial eco threats – they tend to release glues and chemical pollutants into the earth and are filled with metals (handles and bolts) and plastics (lining) that don’t degrade or burn well.
Eco options include cardboard coffins, such as Funeralsearch.co.uk’s Eco Coffin, which retails for £110, plus VAT, for the cardboard coffin, a “cremfilm” lining and an engraved name plate.
It’s not the most beautiful of choices – resembling little more than a large shoe box with a plastic lining (necessary for health reasons) – but the lining can be removed by the very eco-conscious families on request.
Derby-based HIW Ryalls Funeral Directors (www.ecofunerals.co.uk) has cardboard coffins made from 98% recycled lumber (£50) which can be painted or decorated to give a little more of a homely and personalised touch. The company says most people end up covering the casket with a flag.
A less paper-intensive way to go is to invest in a seagrass or bamboo coffin, which is one of the more sustainable options available. Bamboo is grown without the use of pesticides and regenerates itself every seven years.
Bamboo coffins like Ecoffins’ (www.ecoffins.co.uk) – which is where Richard sourced hers – are hand-woven to size and can cost anywhere from £250 to £400.
Willow coffins are in a similar vein, but slightly more upmarket and expensive, costing about £1,000. These coffins are hand-woven and sourced from willow plantations that re-grow easily due to the tree’s hardy nature.
More fanatical types might like Green Endings’ (www.greenendings.co.uk) recycled newspaper casket – lauded by the London-based company as “the most eco-friendly coffin on the market”.
Also made of recycled paper, the Ecopod’s design vaguely resembles the gentle lines of a vegan shoe and has long been praised as the Rolls-Royce of green coffins (www.ecopod.co.uk).
Finally, there’s the coffin cover option, which consists of a traditional coffin outer “shell” that hides a more eco option within. The shell looks like any normal casket from the outside, but is actually carefully hiding a recycled paper or cardboard coffin within – perfect if you want to keep up with the Joneses.
URNS
Cremation is not the most eco way to go, exacting loads of energy and releasing pollutants (such as greenhouse gases and mercury from dental fillings) into the air while doing so, but if that’s how you want to be remembered, try asking your loved ones to consider keeping you in an eco urn.
HIW Ryalls has a papier-mache acorn urn that is completely biodegradable for only £50. Or, if you are more of the “throw me out to sea” type, its water urns float for five minutes before sinking to the ocean (or lake) floor. Water urns, which are made by hand from recycled paper, break down naturally.
Alternatively, ask to be kept in your favourite container – such as favourite ceramic vase or trinket box – and set a supreme example of recycling.
PROMESSION
Promession (www.promessa foundation.org) is a Swedish-born process whereby the body is cryogenically frozen with liquid nitrogen and then shaken into thousands of little compostable bits.
After being separated from any metals and then formulated into an organic, dried powder, the “promains” are then gathered and buried in an eco coffin (taking only six months to a year to completely biodegrade) or placed in an eco urn.
Promession solves the problem of where to bury Britain’s dead as the nation’s burial grounds could be full within the next decade. Some councils have been successful in lobbying to bring the practice over here.
It’s still not as common as cremation, which currently accounts for 70% of all British body disposals.
EVERLASTING LIFE
Forget liquid nitrogen or recycled newspaper caskets – if you really want to go out in eco style, ask your loved ones to wrap your body in a simple shroud and bury it in woodland.
There are now 250 natural burial grounds in Britain – up from just one or two in 1993, according to the Association of Natural Burial Grounds, an independent body representing most of these sites.
The association would like to see one in every local authority within the next 10 years but, until then, it’s possible to be buried on private land, with many farmers selling parts of their unused plots for that very purpose.
Instead of being signposted with a marble headstone, these sites become the planting spot for tree saplings, allowing one’s death to be turned from a seed into a tree – perhaps the greatest reminder of the cycle of life.
A privately owned eco-friendly green burial service available in Scotland is Clovery Woods of Rest, Fyvie, Turriff. Phone 01651 891654.